Saturday, March 17, 2012

UNCLE ANANT PAI : CREATOR OF ‘AMAR CHITRAKATHA COMICS’

MadanMohan Tarun

Mr. Anant Pai is the founder of ‘AMAR CHITRA KATHA and
creator of ‘Indian Comics’. He is popularly known as ‘uncle Pai.

He was born in Kakala, Karnataka in September 1929 and died
on 24th February 2011. He was brought up in Mumbai, and did his
schooling in Orient School Mahim. He studied Chemistry , physics and Chemical
technology at the Bombay university.

He launched the ‘Amar Chitra Katha’ series of ‘Indian comics’ in 1967’ and
reached stories from Hindu Mythology to
the every corner of India and abroad. It was not enjoyed only by children but
people of every age enjoyed this. Its every issue used to be pictorial festival
for eyes, heart and mind. It was priced very reasonable and was affordable in
comparison to other comics published from India or abroad. Chitra katha was a
purposeful publication.

He was inspired to publish
Chitra-katha while once he was watching
a quiz competition in which many Indian participants did not know the name of mother of lord Rama,
whereas, many foreigners answered these questions very comfortably. Indians
knew more of Greek mythology than Indian ones. This hurt Mr. Pai and he made it
a point to come out with such a publication which can present stories from
Hindu mythology in such an attractive manner that kids of can enrich their
knowledge in this field without any effort.
Amar Chitra Katha generated great hunger for such stories. Apart from Mythology he published Chitra
Katha on famous historical events and on heroes and great heroines of the time
in progress.

Its 400 hundred titles have been translated into 20
languages and more than 100 million copies have been sold.

But, this success was not achieved so easily. He had to put
tremendous effort and shed lot of sweat to reach to his desired jumping point.
He worked day and night tirelessly.

The first title KRISHNA of this series was published in
1970. It could not impress people. The publisher lost over 50,000 in first two
years. Mr. Pai worked without any payment for three years.. But, from fourth
year it came in flow and later it created wonders...

He was loved by millions of children of our country and was
addressed as ‘uncle Pai’ with great love for him.

AMAR CHITRA KATHA Comics served as a live museum of Indian
Mythology for the children.